Military Resistance 9E20

“I Often Strike Up Individual

Conversations With Members Of The Guard In And Out Of Uniform Who Express Concern, Anger And Outright Contempt When I Mention Afghanistan” “The Pentagon Must Be Shit Worried Knowing These Soldiers Have Minds Of Their Own And No Fear In Expressing Their Opinions” “Having Worn That Uniform Myself Once My Comment To The Brass In Washington Is 'Be Afraid, Be Very Afraid!' Of Your Soldiers General Ass-Hole Sir” “They Might Become Your Biggest Nightmare Much Sooner Than You Think” [ACTION REPORT]From: M – Military Resistance OrganizationTo: Military Resistance NewsletterSubject: Observations on the groundDate: May 22, 2011 2:57 PM

Observations here on the ground in [XXXXXX] suggest rather substantial discontent in

the California National Guard, the largest Guard force in the U$A.

I often strike up individual conversations with members of the Guard in and out ofuniform who express concern, anger and outright contempt when I mention Afghanistan.

These folks are damn pissed off being used in a war that serves no purpose other thanto prop up the share value of some slimy fat cat arms dealers who live high off the hogat the expense of blood needlessly spilled in the name of 'god' and profit.

Amazing how many see right through the smoke and bullshit Washington spews out.

These 'kids' are very switched on and represent the new young 'Fuck The Army'generation.I'm often surprised having such positive anti-war conversations with someone in a USmilitary uniform. Often I simply listen quickly sensing the relief they feel being able toexpress their views to a supportive member of the public.

The Pentagon must be shit worried knowing these soldiers have minds of their own andno fear in expressing their opinions.

Having worn that uniform myself once my comment to the Brass in Washington is 'beafraid, be very afraid!' of your soldiers General Ass-Hole Sir.

They might become your biggest nightmare much sooner than you think.

MORE:

Americans Don’t Support The War

On Afghanistan: “Lopsided Majority” Says Get Out; “There Was No Major DemographicGroup In Which A Majority Says The U.S. Deployment Should Be Maintained”5/10/2011 By Susan Page, USA TODAY [Excerpts]

So with bin Laden finally gone, is it time for America's longest war to end?

Nearly six in 10 Americans think so, according to a USA TODAY/Gallup Poll taken overthe weekend.

Assessments of how the decade-long war is going have improved a bit, compared withsix weeks ago, and a broad swath of Americans now agrees with the statement that theUnited States "has accomplished its mission in Afghanistan and should bring its troopshome."

When the question was asked in a one-night poll immediately after bin Laden'sdeath was announced May 1, 45% said it was time for U.S. troops to come home.

In a larger and more reliable three-day poll at the end of the week, that numberhad reached a lopsided majority.

The demographic groups that gave Obama his strongest support in the 2008presidential election now are the most supportive of bringing the troops home.That was the view of two-thirds or more of blacks, Hispanics, liberals, womenunder 50, those under 35, low-income Americans and unmarried people.

The conclusion that it's time to bring U.S. troops home isn't confined to Democrats.Among independents, 62% say the mission has been accomplished in Afghanistan.

Even Republicans, traditionally the most supportive of military action, are split: 47% sayimportant tasks remain to be done in Afghanistan; 47% say it's time for the troops tocome home.

In the survey, there was no major demographic group in which a majority says the U.S.deployment should be maintained.

MORE:

The Lying Traitor Obama’s Bullshit

Reeks On: U.S. Combat Troops Who Have All Been Withdrawn From Iraq And Won’t Be In Iraq After December 2011, He Said, Are Going To Iraq This Summer “For More Than A Year”[Thanks to Mark Shapiro, Military Resistance Organization, who sent this in.]

May 26 By Associated Press

RICHMOND, Va. — More than 800 members of the Virginia National Guard arebeing deployed to Iraq for more than a year.

Units based in Hampton Roads, Fredericksburg and Christiansburg will begin federalactive duty June 1. They’ll train for 45 to 60 days at Camp Atterbury, Ind., beforeheading to Iraq.

The units are part of the 116th Brigade Combat Team. While in Iraq, the National Guardsays the soldiers will conduct convoy security and base defense operations. Aconsolidated departure ceremony for the soldiers is to be held Thursday evening inRichmond.

February 27, 2009 By PETER BAKER, New York Times [Excerpt]

CAMP LEJEUNE, N.C. — President Obama declared the beginning of the end of one ofthe longest and most divisive wars in American history on Friday as he announced thathe would withdraw combat forces from Iraq by August 2010 and all remaining troops byDecember 2011.

LIAR TRAITOR SOLDIER-KILLER UNFIT FOR COMMAND UNWORTHY OF OBEDIENCE:

Obama Oct. 27, 2009. (AP Photo/Gerald Herbert)

THIS IS THE ENEMY

BRING THE WAR HOME NOW DO YOU HAVE A FRIEND OR RELATIVE IN THE MILITARY?Forward Military Resistance along, or send us the address if you wish andwe’ll send it regularly. Whether in Afghanistan, Iraq or stuck on a base inthe USA, this is extra important for your service friend, too often cut offfrom access to encouraging news of growing resistance to the wars, insidethe armed services and at home. Send email requests to address up top orwrite to: The Military Resistance, Box 126, 2576 Broadway, New York, N.Y.10025-5657. Phone: 888.711.2550 AFGHANISTAN WAR REPORTS

Eight American Troops Killed In 2

Explosions In Afghanistan[Previously reported as seven. T]

May 27, 2011 AP

Eight U.S. troops who died in the latest attack in southern Afghanistan were hit by twodifferent blasts while they were on foot patrol.

The explosions in Kandahar province happened as the troops began to investigate a

suspicious object they found on Thursday.

The first explosion happened immediately, wounding some of the troops. A

second explosion came as others rushed to the site of the first explosion.

Foreign Occupation “Servicemember”

Killed Somewhere Or Other In Afghanistan Friday: Nationality Not AnnouncedMay 27, 2011 Reuters

A foreign servicemember died following an insurgent attack in southern Afghanistan

today.

POLITICIANS CAN’T BE COUNTED ON TO

HALT THE BLOODSHED

THE TROOPS HAVE THE POWER TO STOP

THE WARS FUTILE EXERCISE: ALL HOME NOW!

A U.S. soldier looks at the scene of an insurgent attack in Jalalabad, Nangarhar

province, east of Kabul, Afghanistan, May 18,2011. Afghan officials say at least 10 havebeen killed in a bomb attack on a police bus that was carrying people to a policeacademy in eastern Afghanistan. (AP Photo/Rahmat Gul)

U.S. soldiers at the location of an explosion in Kandahar south of Kabul, Afghanistan

May 22, 2011. Two police officers suffered injuries when a motorcycle laden withexplosives detonated as they tried to disarm it. (AP Photo/Allauddin Khan) LIBYA WAR REPORTS

Bipartisan House Of Representatives Action Defies Obama On Libya:Resolution Passed That Will “PreventFunds From Being Used To Deploy,Establish, Or Maintain A Presence OfMembers Of The Armed Services OrPrivate Security Contractors On The Ground In Libya” “The American People Have Grown Weary Of Open-Ended Military Adventures That Place Our Troops In Harm's Way And Add Billions To Our National Debt”As you may recall, President Obama last Friday signaled to Congress that hewould welcome legislation authorizing or at least supporting military interventionin Libya.

During consideration of the Defense Authorization bill, two amendments passed

related to Libya -- but they were hardly what President Obama had in mind.

Two bipartisan actions in the House of Representatives related to Libya may bode ill forcongressional support for the U.S. role in military intervention there.

As you may recall, President Obama last Friday signaled to Congress that he wouldwelcome legislation authorizing or at least supporting military intervention in Libya.During consideration of the Defense Authorization bill, two amendments passedrelated to Libya -- but they were hardly what President Obama had in mind.

One from Rep. Scott Garrett, R-NJ, asserted that “Nothing in this Act or anyamendment made by this Act shall be construed to authorize military operationsin Libya.”

Yesterday it passed by voice vote -- meaning no one challenged it.

Today an amendment that would “prevent funds from being used to deploy,establish, or maintain a presence of Members of the Armed Services or privatesecurity contractors on the ground in Libya” -- offered by Rep. John Conyers, D-Mich. -- passed 416-5.

In a statement, Conyers said the “House of Representatives has clearly stated that thecurrent stalemate in Libya will not escalate into an unaffordable occupation that wouldharm our country’s national security...

“I encourage my colleagues in the U.S. Senate to heed today’s vote and join our effortsto ensure that the conflict in Libya does not become another Afghanistan or Iraq. TheAmerican people have grown weary of open-ended military adventures that place ourtroops in harm's way and add billions to our national debt.”

Republicans in the House suggest that the two votes are an interesting indicator of thelevel of support in the House for ongoing operations over there.

Likely to hit the floor next week is a privileged resolution from Rep. Dennis Kucinich, D-Ohio, calling for full withdrawal from the action in accordance with the War Powers Act.

Could that pass? I asked a House GOP leadership aide.

“Honestly we don’t know,” the aide said.

MILITARY RESISTANCE NEWSLETTER BY MAIL FREE FOR ACTIVE DUTY TROOPSIF YOU WISH TO HAVE A SELECTION OF MILITARY RESISTANCE NEWSLETTERSMAILED TO YOU, EMAIL YOUR ADDRESS TO:CONTACT@MILITARYPROJECT.ORG OR DROP A LINE TO: BOX 126, 2576BROADWAY, NEW YORK, N.Y. 10025-5657 USA.

Please say how many you wish sent.

MILITARY NEWS

NOT ANOTHER DAY

NOT ANOTHER DOLLAR NOT ANOTHER LIFE

The remains of Staff Sgt. Kristofferson B. Lorenzo, Pfc. William S. Blevins and Pvt.Thomas C. Allers at Dover Air Force Base, Del., May 25, 2011. Lorenzo, of Chula Vista,Calif., Blevins, of Sardinia, Ohio, and Allers, of Plainwell, Mich., were killed by the sameimprovised explosive device in Afghanistan. (AP Photo/Ann Heisenfelt)

Iraq Veterans Against The War Erect

Watchtower Just Outside Fort Hood East Gate: General Campbell Jr. Refuses To Hear Complaints About Deployment Of Wounded Troops So “The Group Was Putting Him On Watch”May. 27 2011 By Anthony Scott, Killeen Daily Herald

Out of protest against the deployment of soldiers with mental injuries to war, IraqVeterans Against the War teamed up with Under the Hood Outreach Center and Cafe toset up a watchtower outside Fort Hood's East Gate.

The protesters stood their ground all day Thursday, from start to finish of the post'sentire duty day. As cars went by, some passengers honked and shouted.

"We built a tower and the tower's based on putting (III Corps and Fort Hood CommanderLt. Gen. Donald Campbell Jr.) accountable to all the suicides that are happening at FortHood and to all the soldiers not getting the proper (mental health) treatment that theyneed," said Kyle Wesolowski, an Iraq war veteran who recently left the Army with aconscientious objector discharge.

Wesolowski toured Iraq from 2008-09 with the 1st Cavalry Division and is now themanager at Under The Hood Cafe, an outreach center for soldiers.

"We're going to leave him accountable for all of these things now and until the future," hesaid. "Now we're trying to talk to (Campbell) to sit down with him. We've given him over600 emails to be sent to him from our supporters from IVAW members alike."

Wesolowski said one of the things that needs to be done is let soldiers heal from mentalhealth problems before deployment.

"A lot of soldiers are falling through the cracks," he said. "They're being redeployed toIraq with many of these mental conditions."

The protest was part of Operation Recovery, an IVAW campaign to stop the deploymentof traumatized troops.

Prior to the protest, the group went on post Wednesday morning to III CorpsHeadquarters and asked for a meeting with Campbell, said veteran and organizer AaronHughes.

"We were refused again," he said. "We're tired of being ignored."

Led by Wesolowski, a group of six of the veterans went to III Corps Headquarters andasked to meet with Campbell at the reception desk. The Army did not grant the request,said organizer Scott Kimball, a veteran who recounted the experience on the IVAWwebsite.

Kimball said because they did not make contact with Campbell the group was puttinghim on watch.

The next day at the watch tower, Wesolowski led the crew of protesters by listing anumber of complaints, including the fact that in 2009 more than 7,000 soldiers were onantidepressant or antipsychotic medication and military suicide rates increased 150percent from 2001 to 2009.Fort Hood also has the highest suicide rate of any Army post at 22 cases of suicide lastyear, nearly twice as many cases as any other post. Increased cases of military sexualtrauma, post-traumatic stress disorder and traumatic brain injury were also problems, headded.

"We believe they need to get the help they need," Wesolowski said. "To heal, and not beredeployed: That to me is an Army value. To respect every service member whenthey're in trouble."

Bohn “Has Weathered Apathetic

Care Specialists And Frustrating Incompetence From Military Physicians” “Bohn, Severely Injured In An Ambush In Afghanistan Three Years Ago, Is Sinking Deeper Into Debt While He Waits For Veterans Affairs Officials To Process His Disability Claim”“Twice He Was Sent To The Wrong Base While Awaiting Surgeries”[Here it is again. Same old story. Used up, thrown away, and the politicianscouldn’t care less. To repeat for the 3,557th time, the enemy is not in Iraq orAfghanistan. Their citizens and U.S. troops have a common enemy. Thatcommon enemy owns and operates the Imperial government in Washington DCfor their own profit. That common enemy started these wars of conquest on aplatform of lies, because they couldn’t tell the truth: U.S. Imperial wars are aboutmaking money for them, and nothing else. Payback is overdue. T]

May 25, 2011 By Leo Shane, Stars and Stripes [Excerpts]

WASHINGTON — Retired Spc. Steve Bohn, who was severely injured in an ambush inAfghanistan three years ago, is sinking deeper into debt every day while he waits forVeterans Affairs officials to process his disability claim.“I get $699 a month from my retirement pay, and my rent is $700 a month,” the 24-year-old veteran said. “I can’t pay my electric bill. I can’t pay any of my other bills.

“I used to work as a roofer and a chef, but I can’t do either of those anymore, because ofthe pain. I’m struggling.”

The money problems are just the latest ordeal for Bohn, who told lawmakersWednesday that he already has weathered multiple surgeries, apathetic care specialistsand frustrating incompetence from military physicians.

Twice he was sent to the wrong base while awaiting surgeries. For the last sevenmonths, his pleas to speed up the claims process have been ignored.

“Stories like Spc. Bohn’s are unacceptable, but we’re making progress,” VA patient carechief Deborah Amdur told the panel. “But we also know that clearly we still have a longway to go.”

But Jim Lorraine, executive director of the Central Savannah Wounded Warrior CareProject, said he still sees massive communications problems between the military andVA, and says no one from either agency is making sure wounded troops are getting theinformation or services they need.

Lorraine also said that too often, the burden of figuring out the systems falls to thewounded troops themselves.

Bohn said his family couldn’t afford to fly down to Walter Reed fromMassachusetts for his surgeries, and no military officials informed him of outsidegroups that might have helped.

When he came out of the operations, it was hours before anyone called his parents to letthem know he survived, and only after he requested they do so.

Bohn said he received a call just days before Wednesday’s hearing, informing himthat his claim has been sped up.

That prompted several senators to joke that any veteran frustrated with thesystem should be put on the committee’s witness list, to get them extra attention.

“At a time like this, scorching irony, not convincing argument, is needed. Oh hadI the ability, and could reach the nation’s ear, I would, pour out a fiery stream ofbiting ridicule, blasting reproach, withering sarcasm, and stern rebuke.

“For it is not light that is needed, but fire; it is not the gentle shower, but thunder.

“We need the storm, the whirlwind, and the earthquake.”

“The limits of tyrants are prescribed by the endurance of those whom theyoppose.”

Frederick Douglass, 1852

I say that when troops cannot be counted on to follow orders because they seethe futility and immorality of them THAT is the real key to ending a war.-- Al Jaccoma, Veterans For Peace

“The Nixon administration claimed and received great credit for withdrawing theArmy from Vietnam, but it was the rebellion of low-ranking GIs that forced thegovernment to abandon a hopeless suicidal policy”-- David Cortright; Soldiers In Revolt THE SUCCESSFUL ANTI-WAR REBELLION OF THE ARMED FORCES IN VIETNAM: “Sedition – Coupled With Disaffection Within The Ranks, And Externally Fomented With An Audacity And Intensity Previously Inconceivable – Infests The Armed Services”

Vietnam: They Stopped An Imperial War:

Honor And Respect To Them All[Thanks to Mark Shapiro, who sent this in.]

Excerpts from an article by Col. Robert D. Heinl, Jr., North American NewspaperAlliance, Armed Forces Journal, 7 June, 1971

THE MORALE, DISCIPLINE and battleworthiness of the U.S. Armed Forces are, with afew salient exceptions, lower and worse than at anytime in this century and possibly inthe history of the United States.

By every conceivable indicator, our army that now remains in Vietnam is in a stateapproaching collapse, with individual units avoiding or having refused combat,murdering their officers and non commissioned officers, drug-ridden, anddispirited where not near mutinous.

Elsewhere than Vietnam, the situation is nearly as serious.

To understand the military consequences of what is happening to the U.S. Armed

Forces, Vietnam is a good place to start.

It is in Vietnam that the rearguard of a 500,000 man army, in its day and in theobservation of the writer the best army the United States ever put into the field, isnumbly extricating itself from a nightmare war the Armed Forces feel they had foisted onthem by bright civilians who are now back on campus writing books about the folly of itall.

“They have set up separate companies,” writes an American soldier from Cu Chi,quoted in the New York Times, “for men who refuse to go into the field. Is no bigthing to refuse to go. If a man is ordered to go to such and such a place he nolonger goes through the hassle of refusing; he just packs his shirt and goes tovisit some buddies at another base camp.

Operations have become incredibly ragtag. Many guys don’t even put on theiruniforms any more... The American garrison on the larger bases are virtuallydisarmed. The lifers have taken our weapons from us and put them under lockand key...There have also been quite a few frag incidents in the battalion.”

“Frag incidents” or just “fragging” is current soldier slang in Vietnam for the murder orattempted murder of strict, unpopular, or just aggressive officers and NCOs. Withextreme reluctance (after a young West Pointer from Senator Mike Mansfield’s Montanawas fragged in his sleep) the Pentagon has now disclosed that fraggings in 1970(109)have more than doubled those of the previous year (96).

Word of the deaths of officers will bring cheers at troop movies or in bivouacs ofcertain units.

In one such division -- the morale plagued Americal -- fraggings during 1971 havebeen authoritatively estimated to be running about one a week.

Yet fraggings, though hard to document, form part of the ugly lore of every war. The firstsuch verified incident known to have taken place occurred 190 years ago whenPennsylvania soldiers in the Continental Army killed one of their captains during thenight of 1 January 1781.

Bounties, raised by common subscription in amounts running anywhere from $50

to $1,000, have been widely reported put on the heads of leaders whom theprivates and Sp4s want to rub out.

Shortly after the costly assault on Hamburger Hill in mid-1969, the GI undergroundnewspaper in Vietnam, “G.I. Says”, publicly offered a $10,000 bounty on Lt. Col.Weldon Honeycutt, the officer who ordered (and led) the attack. Despite severalattempts, however, Honeycutt managed to live out his tour and return Stateside.“Another Hamburger Hill,” (i.e., toughly contested assault), conceded a veteranmajor, is definitely out.”

The issue of “combat refusal”, and official euphemism for disobedience of ordersto fight -- the soldier’s gravest crime – has only recently been again precipitatedon the frontier of Laos by Troop B, 1st Cavalry’s mass refusal to recapture theircaptain’s command vehicle containing communication gear, codes and othersecret operation orders.

As early as mid-1969, however, an entire company of the 196th Light Infantry Brigadepublicly sat down on the battlefield. Later that year, another rifle company, from thefamed 1st Air Cavalry Division, flatly refused -- on CBS-TV -- to advance down adangerous trail.

While denying further unit refusals the Air Cav has admitted some 35 individual refusalsin 1970 alone. By comparison, only two years earlier in 1968, the entire number ofofficially recorded refusals for our whole army in Vietnam -- from over seven divisions -was 68.

“Search and evade” (meaning tacit avoidance of combat by units in the field) isnow virtually a principle of war, vividly expressed by the GI phrase, “CYA (coveryour ass) and get home!”

That “search-and-evade” has not gone unnoticed by the enemy is underscored by

the Viet Cong delegation’s recent statement at the Paris Peace Talks thatcommunist units in Indochina have been ordered not to engage American unitswhich do not molest them. The same statement boasted - not without foundationin fact - that American defectors are in the VC ranks.

Symbolic anti-war fasts (such as the one at Pleiku where an entire medical unit,led by its officers, refused Thanksgiving turkey), peace symbols, “V”-signs not forvictory but for peace, booing and cursing of officers and even of haplessentertainers such as Bob Hope, are unhappily commonplace.

Only last year an Air Force major and command pilot for Ambassador Bunker wasapprehended at Ton Son Nhut air base outside Saigon with $8 million worth of heroin inhis aircraft.

The major is now in Leavenworth.

Early this year, and Air force regular colonel was court-martialed and cashiered forleading his squadron in pot parties, while, at Cam Ranh Air Force Base, 43 members ofthe base security police squadron were recently swept up in dragnet narcotics raids.

All the foregoing facts – and mean more dire indicators of the worse kind ofmilitary trouble – point to widespread conditions among American forces inVietnam that have only been exceeded in this century by the French Army’sNivelle mutinies of 1917 and the collapse of the Tsarist armies in 1916 and 1917.Sedition – coupled with disaffection within the ranks, and externally fomentedwith an audacity and intensity previously inconceivable – infests the ArmedServices:

At best count, there appear to be some 144 underground newspapers published on or

aimed at U.S. military bases in this country and overseas. Since 1970 the number ofsuch sheets has increased 40% (up from 103 last fall).

These journals are not mere gripe-sheets that poke soldier fun in the “BeetleBailey” tradition, at the brass and the sergeants.

At least 14 GI dissent organizations (including two made up exclusively of

officers) now operate more or less openly. Ancillary to these are at least sixantiwar veterans’ groups which strive to influence GIs.

Three well-established lawyer groups specialize in support of GI dissent. Two (GI CivilLiberties Defense Committee and new York Draft and Military Law Panel) operate in theopen. A third is a semi-underground network of lawyers who can only be contactedthrough the GI Alliance, a Washington, D.C., group which tries to coordinate seditiousantimilitary activities throughout the country.

One antimilitary legal effort operates right in the theater of war. A three-man law office,backed by the Lawyers’ Military Defense Committee, of Cambridge, Mass., was set uplast fall in Saigon to provide free civilian legal services for dissident soldiers being court-martialed in Vietnam.

Besides these lawyers’ fronts, the Pacific Counseling Service (an umbrella organizationwith Unitarian backing for a prolifery of antimilitary activities) provides legal help andincitement to dissident GIs through not one but seven branches (Tacoma, Oakland, LosAngeles, San Diego, Monterey, Tokyo, and Okinawa).

Another of Pacific Counseling’s activities is to air-drop planeloads of sedition literature

into Oakland’s sprawling Army Base, our major West Coast staging point for Vietnam

On the religious front, a community of turbulent priests and clergymen, some

unfrocked, calls itself the Order of Maximilian.

Maximilian is a saint said to have been martyred by the Romans for refusingmilitary service as un-Christian. Maximilian’s present-day followers visit militaryposts, infiltrate brigs and stockades in the guise of spiritual counseling, work torecruit military chaplains, and hold services of “consecrations” of post chapels inthe name of their saintly draft-dodger.

Virtually all the coffee houses are or have been supported by the U.S. Serviceman’sFund, whose offices are in new York City’s Bronx.

While refusing to divulge names, IRS sources say that the serviceman’s Fund has beenlargely bankrolled by well-to-do liberals.

One example of this kind of liberal support for sedition which did surface identifiably lastyear was the $8,500 nut channeled from the Philip Stern Family Foundation tounderwrite Seaman Roger Priest’s underground paper OM, which, among other writings,ran do-it-yourself advice for desertion to Canada and advocated assassination ofPresident Nixon.

“Entertainment Industry for Peace and Justice,” the antiwar show-biz frontorganized by Jane Fonda, Dick Gregory, and Dalton Trumbo, now claims over 800film, TV, and music names. This organization is backing Miss Fonda’s antimilitaryroad-show that opened outside the gates of Ft. Bragg, N.C., in mid-March.

Describing her performances (scripted by Jules Pfeiffer) as the soldiers’ alternative to

Bob Hope, Miss Fonda says her case will repeat the Ft Bragg show at or outside 19more major bases.

As a Congressman, Dellums cannot be barred from military posts and has beentaking full advantage of the fact. At Ft Meade, Md., last month, Dellums led asoldier audience as they booed and cursed their commanding officer who waspresent on-stage in the post theater which the Army had to make available.

THE SUCCESSFUL ANTI-WAR

REBELLION OF THE ARMED FORCES IN VIETNAM [Part 2] “Unpunished Sedition, And Recalcitrant Antimilitary Malevolence” Elected Enlisted Men’s Councils “Made Up Of Privates And Sp 4s (NCOs Aren’t Allowed) Which Sits At The Elbow Of Every Unit Commander Down To The Companies”[Thanks to Mark Shapiro, who sent this in.]

The Action Groups

Not unsurprisingly, the end-product of the atmosphere of incitement of unpunishedsedition, and of recalcitrant antimilitary malevolence which pervades the world of thedraftee (and to an extent the low-ranking men in “volunteer” services, too) is overt action.

During 1970, large armory thefts were successfully perpetrated against Oakland ArmyBase, Vets Cronkhite and Ord, and even the marine Corps Base at Camp Pendleton,where a team wearing Marine uniforms got away with nine M-16 rifles and an M-79grenade launcher.

Operating in the middle West, three soldiers from Ft Carson, Colo., home of the Army’spermissive experimental unite, the 4th Mechanized Division, were recently indicted by afederal grand jury for dynamiting the telephone exchange, power plant and water worksof another Army installation, Camp McCoy, Wis., on 26 July 1970.

The Navy, particularly on the West Coast, has also experienced disturbing cases ofsabotage in the past two years, mainly directed at ships’ engineering and electricalmachinery.

It will be surprising, according to informed officers, if further such tangible evidence of

disaffection within the ranks does not continue to come to light. Their view is that thesituation could become considerably worse before it gets better.

Part of the defense establishment’s problem with the judiciary is the now widelypursued practice of taking commanding officers into civil courts by dissidentsoldiers either to harass or annul normal discipline or administrative proceduresor the services.

Only a short time ago, for example, a dissident group of active-duty officers, members ofthe concerned Officers’ Movement (COM), filed a sweeping lawsuit against DefenseSecretary Laird himself, a well as all three service secretaries, demanding officialrecognition of their “right” to oppose the Vietnam war, accusing the secretaries of“harassing” them, and calling for court injunction to ban disciplinary “retaliation” againstCOM members.Such nuisance suits from the inside (usually, like the Laird suit, on constitutionalgrounds) by people still in uniform, let alone by officers, were unheard-of until two orthree years ago.

Now, according to one Army general, the practice has become so command that,in his words, “I can’t even give a /34/ directive without getting permission from mystaff judge advocate.”

Other reports tell of jail-delivery attacks on Army stockades and military police to releaseblack prisoners, and of officers being struck in public by black soldiers. Augsburg,Krailsheim, and Hohenfels are said to be rife with racial trouble.

Desertions And Disasters

With conditions what they are in the Armed Forces, and with intense efforts on the partof elements in our society to disrupt discipline and destroy morale the consequences canbe clearly measured in two ultimate indicators: man-power retention (reenlistments andtheir antithesis, desertions); and the state of discipline.

In both respects the picture is anything but encouraging.

Desertion, to be sure, has often been a serious problem in the past. In 1826, forexample, desertions exceeded 50% of the total enlistments in the Army. During the CivilWar, in 1864, Jefferson Davis reported to the Confederate Congress: “Two thirds of ourmen are absent, most absent without leave.”

Desertion rates are going straight up in Army, Marines, and Air Force. Curiously,however, during the period since 1968 when desertion has nearly doubled for all threeother services, the Navy’s rate has risen by less than 20 percent.

In 1970, the Army had 65,643 deserters, or roughly the equivalent of four infantrydivisions.

This desertion rate (52.3 soldiers per thousand) is well over twice the peak rate forKorea (22.5 per thousand).

If desertions continue to rise (as they are still doing this year), they will attain or surpassthe WWII peak of 63 per thousand, which, incidentally, occurred in the same year (1945)when more soldiers were actually being discharged from the Army for psychoneurosisthan were drafted.

The marines in 1970 had the highest desertion index in the modern history of the Corpsand, for that year at least, slightly higher than the Army’s. Meanwhile, grimly remarkedone officer, “let the bastards go. We’re all the better without them.”

But letting the bastards go doesn’t work at all for the Army and the Navy, who do need alot of recruits and whose reenlistment problems are dire.Admiral Elmo R. Zumwalt, Jr., chief of naval Operations, minces no words. “Wehave a personnel crisis,” he recently said, “that borders on disaster.”

The Navy’s crisis, as Zumwalt accurately describes it, is that of a highly technical,material oriented service that finds itself unable to retain the expensively-trainedtechnicians needed to operate warships, which are the largest, most complex items ofmachinery that man makes and uses.

*********************************

“Discipline,” George Washington once remarked, “is the soul of an army.”

Washington should know.

In January 1781, all the Pennsylvania and New Jersey troops in the Continental Armymutinied. Washington only quelled the outbreaks by disarming the Jersey mutineersand having their leaders shot in hollow square – by a firing squad made up of fellowmutineers.

(The navy’s only mutiny, aboard USS Somers in 1842, was quelled when the captainhanged the mutineers from the yardarm while still at sea.)

If Washington was correct (and almost any professional soldier, whether officer or NCO,will agree), then the Armed Forces today are in deep trouble.

What enhances this trouble, by exponential dimensions, is the kind of manpower withwhich the Armed Forces now have to work.

As early as three years ago, U.S. News and World Report reported that theservices were already plagued with “… a new breed of man, who thinks he is hisown Secretary of State, Secretary of Defense, and Attorney General. He considershimself superior to any officer alive. And he is smart enough to go by the book.He walks a tightrope between the regulations and sedition.”

Yet the problem is not just one of trouble-makers and how to cope with them.

The trouble of the services – produced by and also in turn producing the dismayingconditions described in this article – is above all a crisis of soul and backbone.

It entails – the word is not too strong – something very near a collapse of thecommand authority and leadership George Washington saw as the soul of militaryforces. This collapse results, at least in part, from a concurrent collapse of publicconfidence in the military establishment.

Elected Enlisted Men’s Councils

General Matthew B. Ridgway, one of the Army’s finest leaders in this century (whorevitalized the shaken Eighth Army in Korea after its headlong rout by the Chinese in1950) recently said, “Not before in my lifetime … has the Army’s public image fallen tosuch low esteem …”

But the fall in public esteem of all three major services – not just the Army – is exceededby the fall or at least the enfeeblement of the hierarchic and disciplinary system by whichthey exist and, when ordered to do so, fight and sometimes die.

Take the case of the noncommissioned and petty officers.

In Rudyard Kipling’s lines, “the backbone o’ the Army is the noncommissioned man!”

In the 4th Mechanized Division at Ft. Carson, Sp 4 David Gyongyos, on his second yearin the Army, enjoys an office across the hall from the division commander, a full-timesecretary, and staff car and driver also assigned full time. He has the home phonenumbers of the general and chief of staff and doesn’t hesitate to use them out of workinghours when he feels like it.

Gyongyos (with a bachelor’s degree in theology and two years’ law school) ischairman of the division’s Enlisted Men’s Councils, a system of elected [councils]made up of privates and Sp 4s (NCOs aren’t allowed) which sits at the elbow ofevery unit commander down to the companies.

The division sergeant major, with a quarter-century in the Army, who is supposed to bethe division’s first soldiers and – non-electively – father and ombudsman of every soldier,has an office with is on even on the same floor with the general (or Sp 4 Gyongyoseither). He gets his transportation, as needed, from the motor pool.

The very most that Gyongyos will concede to the sergeant major, the first sergeants, theplatoon sergeants – the historic enlisted leadership of armies – is that they are “combattechnicians.” They are not, he coldly adds, “highly skilled in the social sciences.”

The soldiers’ [councils] of the 4th Division represent an experiment in what the Armycalls “better communications”.

Conditions throughout the rest of the Army do not quite duplicate those at Carson, butthe same spirit is abroad. And experienced NCOs everywhere feel threatened or at leastpuzzled.

Most major units of the Army, Navy, and Air force have some form of enlistedmen’s councils, as well as junior officer councils.

Even the trainee companies at Ft. Ord, Calif. have councils, made up of recruits,who take questions and complaints past their DIs to company commanders andhold weekly meetings and post minutes on bulletin-boards.

General Pershing, who once said, “All a soldier needs to know is how to shoot andsalute”, would be surprised.As for the officers, said a four-star admiral, “We have lost our voice.”

**********************************

The foregoing may be true as far as admirals are concerned, but hasn’t hamperedshort-term junior officers (including several West Pointers) from banding togetherinto highly vocal antiwar and antimilitary organizations, such as the ConcernedOfficers’ Movement (COM).

At Norfolk, the local COM chapter has a peace billboard outside gate 2, NorfolkNaval Station, where every sailor can profit by the example of his officers.

Very Good writing.

Here’s the poem by Wesolowski again.

Followed by one by Dennis Serdel.

TherapyBy Kyle Wesolowski, May 17 2011, Iraq Veterans Against The War (www.ivaw.org/)

In this town therapy is secondary

To the needs of our cities’ health and humanityThe powers that decide our livelihood make another primary priorityDeciding to fill up our bathroom cabinets instead of giving us therapyIts all goodThey like to prescribe medication to GIsIts easier to control them when they’ve made them dependent on a drug forminghabitForget about fixing combat stressJust hop us up on benzodizipinesSo we forget the pastdulling our painful realityOf what war does to our mentalityFor some of us we may not have scars or limbs lostIts taboo in this townWe all know war effects every solider not just physically

For the pill popping solider

Fort Hood makes it easier for us who suffer from over medicationA normality in our health care societyDon’t worry about itIf you get the shakes there’s a new expressway lane for your quick fixIt just open up for business

Roll up in your ride to Thomas Moore clinic

10 mikes later you got your fill of dependencyAll thats left to do is grab a bottle of water to swallow down handicapped half-assed therapySo quick so easy, you’ll make it back in time to your motor pool duties

The military clearly would rather find their own quick fix to the mental healthepidemicWhere did the battle buddy system go?Anyone can be your battle buddy even General Campbell.It doesn’t exist anymoreA soldier is no better then an Afghan or IraqiPut their problems to the side and worry about it years later after they forgotabout usPills have there place but without therapy the veterans can’t live this way foreverFor many the help won’t comeSuicides happen in regularityIf they’re lucky they will at least see the pearly gatesThe gates that big book we all know talks about.

Son, we can’t send you

any packageslike we have sent you beforebecause the shopthat I worked for for 27 yearshas just went bankruptmy pension money is gonedidn’t get severance payafter all those yearsand I would have to payCobra for health care butI don’t have money for thatthey didn’t even give memy vacation paythey gave me nothingnothing at allI took our savings and paid offour home but now all I get isunemployment checksand food stampsthat will stop in monthsI don’t know what I will do then,I’m old and nobody will hire mebut even the youngcan’t find any jobsSoon they will take our carturn off electricityand turn off the heatSon, I know you have troublesof your own in Iraqbut I think you are fightingthe wrong enemy over thereI think all of you should come homefight the governmentthe corporationsand defend us fromthe bill collectorskill the white shirt bank criminalsthe oil company criminalskill all the Madoof’sthat have taken over our countrybecause nothing worksover here anymore.Love, Dad

DANGER: POLITICIANS AT WORK

The Imperial Congress Almost Votes

To Kill Somewhat Fewer U.S. Troops In Afghanistan For The Next Several Years: Vague Proposal For “A Quicker Exit” Gets 204 VotesMay 26, 2011 By Catalina Camia, USA TODAY [Excerpts]

A coalition of House Republicans and Democrats voiced its frustration at President

Obama's policy in Afghanistan, amassing more than 200 votes on a plan to speed up thewithdrawal of U.S. troops.

The move for a quicker exit from Afghanistan was narrowly defeated on a 204-215 vote.In all, 178 Democrats and 26 Republicans voted for the plan by Reps. Jim McGovern, D-Mass., and Walter Jones, R-N.C. Similar legislation last year got 138 votes, with far lessGOP support.

CLASS WAR REPORTS

NEED SOME TRUTH?

CHECK OUT TRAVELING SOLDIERTraveling Soldier is the publication of the Military Resistance Organization.

Telling the truth - about the occupations or the criminals running the governmentin Washington - is the first reason for Traveling Soldier. But we want to do morethan tell the truth; we want to report on the resistance to Imperial wars inside thearmed forces.Our goal is for Traveling Soldier to become the thread that ties working-classpeople inside the armed services together. We want this newsletter to be aweapon to help you organize resistance within the armed forces.

If you like what you've read, we hope that you'll join with us in building a networkof active duty organizers. http://www.traveling-soldier.org/

And join with Iraq Veterans Against the War to end the occupations and bring alltroops home now! (www.ivaw.org/)

IF YOU DON’T LIKE THE RESISTANCE

END THE OCCUPATIONSMilitary Resistance distributes and posts to our website copyrighted material the use of which has not always beenspecifically authorized by the copyright owner. We are making such material available in an effort to advanceunderstanding of the invasion and occupations of Iraq and Afghanistan. We believe this constitutes a “fair use” of anysuch copyrighted material as provided for in section 107 of the US Copyright Law since it is being distributed withoutcharge or profit for educational purposes to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the includedinformation for educational purposes, in accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107. Military Resistance has noaffiliation whatsoever with the originator of these articles nor is Military Resistance endorsed or sponsored bythe originators. This attributed work is provided a non-profit basis to facilitate understanding, research,education, and the advancement of human rights and social justice. Go to:www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/17/107.shtml for more information. If you wish to use copyrighted material from this site forpurposes of your own that go beyond 'fair use', you must obtain permission from the copyright owner.

If printed out, a copy of this newsletter is your personal property and cannotlegally be confiscated from you. “Possession of unauthorized material may notbe prohibited.” DoD Directive 1325.6 Section 3.5.1.2.